Pride

Pride is a universal human emotion recognized by people in all cultures. It would be difficult to overstate the role played by feelings of pride—in the lives of children, in the development of character, and in human relationships more generally. This entry reviews the nature of pride, the development of feelings of pride in young children, and the importance of this emotion for psychological well-being throughout the life span.

In contemporary emotion theory, pride (along with shame, embarrassment, and guilt) is understood as a self-conscious or self-evaluative emotion. Many emotions have a component of self-evaluation. For example, when a person is angry, anxious, or sad, the intensity of these feelings depends, in part, on an intuitive assessment of the person’s ability to cope with the opportunity ...